Afternoon summary
- Alexander Yakovenko, the Russian ambassador to the UK, has indicated that Russia will not accept the findings of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) investigation into the Salisbury nerve agent attack. During a lengthy press conference, he said Russia would only accept the conclusions if there was full transparency about who was carrying out the tests, and if other countries were involved. But the OPCW has said that it is not planning this level of disclosure. Yakovenko also claimed “the majority of the world community” did not back the UK, Nato and the EU in blaming Russia for the Salisbury attack. (See 3.40pm.)
- Matt Hancock, the culture secretary, has announced he is summoning Facebook to a meeting next week to discuss its handling of data. He said:
I’ll be meeting Facebook next week. I expect it to explain why they put the data of more than a million of our citizens at risk. This is completely unacceptable, and they must demonstrate this won’t happen again.
That’s all from me for today.
And for the next 10 days too. I will be off next week. If it’s busy, a colleague will be writing the blog from HQ, but if it looks quiet, we may do without.
Greens promise to act as 'insurgents' as they launch local election campaign
The Green party has launched its local election campaign with a pledge that the party’s councillors will act as “insurgents” to shake up complacent local authorities with traditionally overwhelming Labour or Conservative majorities.
Speaking at a launch event in South London the Green co-leader, Jonathan Bartley, said even a handful of Green representatives could make a difference, arguing that his party had replaced Ukip as the main outside challenger to political orthodoxies.
He cited the example of Alison Teal, one of a handful of Greens on Sheffield city council, who has taken a leading role in opposing the Labour-dominated authority’s hugely controversial plan to cut down more than 17,000 local trees.
“People are incredibly angry and feel incredibly betrayed by these one-party states, councils which have lost touch with local people,” Bartley said.
The party is contesting more than 2,200 seats in the election on May 3 which cover all councils in London and some metropolitan, unitary and district authorities elsewhere in England, about half the total.
The poll will mark a major test for a party which was badly squeezed at the last general election – its vote total fell by more than half from 2015, to just over 500,000 – something seen as being caused in part by the leftward shift of a Jeremy Corbyn-led Labour.
However, the Greens are keen to push the message that many Labour councils are different. The launch took place at the Central Hill estate in Crystal Palace, which the Labour-run council wants to demolish despite opposition from many residents.
The local authority, Lambeth, has run into a number of controversies over the way it has responded to reduced funding, notably over schemes to replace housing estates, and the closure of libraries.
Labour holds 59 of the 63 councils seats, with just three Conservatives and one Green as opposition.
But Bartley said he was hopeful of making gains, pointing to a byelection in 2016 which saw the Green candidate come within 36 votes of taking a seat in what had been the borough’s safest Labour ward
“On that basis, any seat across the whole of Lambeth is vulnerable, where people feel the council has lost touch,” he said.
With national politics becoming increasingly two-party – the 2017 election saw the Conservatives and Labour gain almost 83% of all votes – Bartley said the opportunity was there for another party to take over from Ukip as a voice of dissent.
“We’re the insurgents,” he said. “You could call us the Ukip of the left – we have even taken a seat from Ukip. We couldn’t be more opposed to Ukip’s policies on things like migration, but that feeling of not having control is very. very strong.
“I’ve often been around parts of northern England knocking on doors and people say, ‘I’m either going to vote Green or Ukip.’ I tell them, ‘Do you know what we stand for?’ But it is that feeling of being an insurgent party.”
Boris Johnson accuses Russia of 'shameless cynicism'
Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, has just posted a tweet accusing Russia of “shameless cynicism”.
Yesterday, Russia failed to persuade OPCW that they, the chief suspect, should join an investigation of attempted assassinations in Salisbury. Today’s gambit is to rope the UN Security Council into their disinformation campaign. The world will see through this shameless cynicism
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) April 5, 2018
Russian ambassador's press conference - Summary
Here are the main points from the press conference given by Alexander Yakovenko, the Russian ambassador to the UK.
- Yakovenko said “the majority of the world community” did not back the UK, Nato and the EU in blaming Russia for the Salisbury attack. As evidence for this, he cited the voting figures from yesterday’s meeting of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). A Russian proposal for a joint British/Russian investigation into Salisbury was defeated, by six votes to 15. But 17 countries abstained, and Yakovenko said that meant a majority of countries were not siding with the UK.
The majority of the world community is not supporting the Western approach.
Yakovenko said it was only Nato countries and countries in the EU that were backing the UK. Countries from Latin America, Africa and Asia were holding back, he said. They wanted evidence, he argued.
- He signalled that Russia would not support the conclusions of the OPCW investigation into Salisbury. It would only do so if other countries were involved, he said, calling for transparency. He said he would like Russia to participate, but would settle for other countries having a monitoring role. In response to the first question on this he replied:
As far as the results, of course we will accept the results. But these results should be confirmed by the international community. We want to see who were the experts. For the time being, we don’t know who were the experts. The last time, the team was headed by the British, in Syria. That was a real problem for us. We need an international team.
Then, when asked for clarfication, he said:
We want transparency and we want an international presence in this so-called investigation. Of course we are happy to have Russians there, because we would ask the right questions. But we’ll be happy to have other countries, not just from Nato and the EU, but from India, from China, from Latin America, from Africa. So make it transparent, not a closed shop.
But what Yakovenko was demanding is totally contrary to the way the OPCW operates. As its director general set out in a note (pdf) yesterday, the OPCW “does not disclose the identities of members of teams [carrying out its investigations] or mission planning details to states parties other than the state party hosting the technical assistance visit”. It also does not reveal the laboratories that are carrying out tests as part of its investigations.
- Yakovenko said relations between the UK and Russia were “at the lowest level today at least for many years”.
- He said Russia had never produced novichok.
The whole story about novichok started in the United States in the ‘90s. It is nothing to do with Russia. We never produced it, we never had novichok. This is a creation of some other countries and some scientists.
- He implied Britain was involved in the suspicious deaths of Russian nationals in the UK.
We have a lot of suspicions about Britain. If we take the last 10 years, so many Russian citizens died here in the UK under very strange circumstances.
The last one was Glushkov. He was strangled - as it was said officially - on March 12. He was a Russian businessman - a Russian citizen, not a British citizen - and his case is also classified. We don’t have any access to the investigation, we don’t know anything. We want to know the truth.
My question is ‘Why is it happening here?’.
Updated
My colleague Andrew Roth has an English transcript of the audio that has been broadcast in Russia of what is said to be a conversation between Viktoria Skripal and her cousin Yulia, who was injured in the nerve agent attack and who is still in hospital. But it has not been confirmed that the caller was Yulia.
My quick English transcript of phone call between Viktoria Skripal and her Yulia played on Russian television. Audio is here: https://t.co/iWcBNQbiLL pic.twitter.com/LkZI6MQgZz
— Andrew Roth (@Andrew__Roth) April 5, 2018
Yakovenko takes what he says will be the last question.
Q: If Viktoria Skripal gets a visa, will she be accompanied by Russian diplomats? Or is she coming on her own?
Yakovenko says the Russian authorities are not sponsoring her visit. She is coming on her own.
But he says he has offered her transport, and offered to put her up in embassy accommodation. And he has offered to provide an interpreter.
The timing of the visit, and how long she stays, is up to her, he says.
She says Viktoria Skripal says the BBC helped her filling out her visa forms.
But if she does visit, that will not be a substitute for consular access. The Russians are still pushing for consular access, he says. He says the Russians have to investigate what happened.
He says Viktoria Skripal does not have good English.
And that’s it. He finishes Yakovenko by telling the journalists that they missed lunch, “but got a lot of good things”.
I will post a summary soon.
Q: Why has Russia called a security council meeting? Does it have new information?
Yakovenko says it is time for the security council to hold a meeting. Wait a few hours and you will see, he says.
Q: Will the British give Viktoria Skripal a visa to allow her to visit?
Yakovenko says he does not know, but he hopes so.
He says the British authorities can issue visas quickly. But in this case they have not responded quickly.
Q: Have you had information about the antidote given to the Skripals?
Yakovenko says Russia has asked about this, but not received an answer. He says the head of Porton Down said in his interview that no antidote was used.
Yakovenko says he is really pleased to hear Yulia Skripal is recovering. He hopes Sergei Skripal recovers too. He acknowledges that Skripal betrayed his country. But he went to prison and received his punishment and was then released, he says.
I’m really happy and I hope Sergei Skripal will also recover and I’m quite sure that one day Yulia will come back to Moscow where she has job, apartments, she is a wealthy person and she is doing well.
As far as the father, that is his choice, he decided to live here in the UK, no problem.
Updated
Yakovenko says, outside EU, most countries do not accept UK’s claims about Russia being to blame for Salisbury attack.
Yakovenko says he invited ambassadors in London to a meeting yesterday. The EU was represented by Bulgaria (which has the EU presidency). He says the EU backs Britain, but the other countries don’t. They will not accept what the UK is saying without evidence.
- Yakovenko says, outside the EU, most countries in the world do not accept the UK’s claims about Russia being to blame for the Salisbury attack.
Q: If you are so keen on transparency, why has Russia blocked investigations into the use of chemical weapons in Syria?
Yakovenko says the Russian embassy set out its reasons on its website in a statement issued in response to an article from the Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt.
Q: You say Russia accepts due process? But how can that be the case if you are insisting that Russians are involved in the OPCW investigation?
Yakovenko says it is not just about Russian involvement; it wants other countries involved. It does not want the investigation to be carried out by just a small range of people.
Russia does not just want British investigators involved.
Q: The OPCW never names those carrying out its investigations.
That is why Russia wants transparency, he says.
Yakovenko says he thinks the UK could have two motives for being behind the attack; to divert attention from Brexit, and to take the lead internationally in confronting Russia.
Q: Yulia Skripal has issued a statement today. (See 2.08pm.) She said she and her father were “incapacitated”. Doesn’t that add credibility to the British case?
Yakovenko says he has not seen the statement.
Q: You keep smiling and joking. That suggests you are not taking this seriously.
Yakovkenko says that is just his style. Don’t read too much into it, he suggests. He says Russia is taking this very seriously.
Yakovenko says British experts are coming out with a range of stories about how Russia is to blame.
Asked about the search of a Russian plane at Heathrow last week, Yakovenko says the Russians did not object to the search. But the British wanted the pilot and the crew to leave the plane while it happened. That is what Russia objected to, he says.
Updated
Q: Will you accept the outcome of the OPCW investigation?
Let’s first investigate, and then we’ll see, says Yakovenko.
Here is a summary of the press conference (which hasn’t finished) from the BBC’s Norman Smith.
So in summary... Russian take on #salisbury 1. It wasn't us 2. We never made Novichok 3. It was probably you Brits 4. Most of the world is against you.
— norman smith (@BBCNormanS) April 5, 2018
Yulia Skripal says attack has been 'disorientating' but her 'strength growing daily'
The Metropolitan Police have just release a statement from Yulia Skripal, one of the victims of the Salisbury attack. She said:
I woke up over a week ago now and am glad to say my strength is growing daily. I am grateful for the interest in me and for the many messages of goodwill that I have received.
I have many people to thank for my recovery and would especially like to mention the people of Salisbury that came to my aid when my father and I were incapacitated. Further than that, I would like to thank the staff at Salisbury District Hospital for their care and professionalism.
I am sure you appreciate that the entire episode is somewhat disorientating, and I hope that you’ll respect my privacy and that of my family during the period of my convalescence.
This is from my colleague Andrew Roth in Moscow. Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, is echoing what Yakovenko has just said (see 1.37pm and 1.39pm) and has signalled that Russia may not accept the results of the OPCW investigation into the Salisbury attack.
Lavrov says Moscow won't "a priori support findings of an investigation in which it is not involved and which is being kept secret." So when those OPCW results come out next week, whatever they say, the standoff continues.
— Andrew Roth (@Andrew__Roth) April 5, 2018
Updated
Yakovenko says Yulia Skripal could probably answer some of the 40-odd questions that Russia has submitted to the Foreign Office.
He says he is going to meet Viktoria Skripa (Yulia’s cousin) when she comes to London.
Q: You have stopped producing novichok ...
We never had it, Yakovenko says.
Q: Have you had any stocks?
Yakovenko says Russia never produced it.
In 1992 it started closing down its chemical weapons programme. That process has now finished, he says. He says the US is taking much long and will not get rid of all its chemical weapons until 2023.
Q: Why do you think so many Russian citizens are dying in the UK, not citizens from other countries? And is Boris Johnson to blame for the lack of cooperation you are getting from the Foreign Office?
Yakovenko says Johnson is the foreign secretary.
He does not answer the first question.
Yakovenko says, if something bad happens to a foreign national, the embassy should be informed. That did not happen in this case, he says.
He says Scotland Yard and the British government are refusing to cooperate with Russia about the Skripal case. “The telephones are switched off,” he says. That means the Russian embassy cannot provide the services it should be providing to citizens.
This is being reported in Russia, he says, and the popularity of Britain amongst Russians is going down as a result.
Yakovenko says he thinks the whole world will come to the World Cup. It will be a celebration of sport, he says, and a great opportunity to show off Russia.
Last month Russia launched 5G in Russia. It is 10 times faster than 4G, he says.
He says Russia wants to engage the British side in a joint investigation.
He says many people have died in the UK in strange circumstances. The most recent case was Nikolai Glushkov. He says he wants to know why this happens.
Q: Do you agree with Sergei Lavrov that the UK may have staged this to distract attention from Brexit?
Yakovenko says that was Lavrov’s logic. He was trying to think why the UK would not be cooperating with Russia.
Q: Why do you think Britain expelled 23 diplomats?
Yakovenko says he does not know. That was a political decision, he says. It was not supported by common sense. He says they were called spies. Russia does not accept that, he says.
He says relations between the UK and Russia are at their lowest level for years.
Q: Do you know if the phone conversation reported today by Viktoria Skripal (see 12.50pm) is genuine?
Yakovenko says Russia has asked the Britain questions about the Skripals. It has not had answers.
Q: [From my colleague Patrick Wintour] Are you saying you will accept the results of the OPCW inquiry even if Russians are not involved?
Yakovenko says Russia wants the international community involved. It would be nice to have Russians there. But it does not matter if other countries are there asking questions, he says. He says the Russians want the process to be transparent.
- Russian ambassador suggests Russia will not accept the results of the OPCW investigation into the Salisbury attack unless other countries are involved.
Updated
Q: Will you accept the results of the OPCW investigation? And if the UN security council does not back Russia today, what is the next step?
Yakovenko says, on the second question, he needs advice from the questioner. He does not know what Russia would do. But he stresses the point about the whole of the world community backing the US/UK approach.
As for the OPCW, he says of course Russia will accept the results. But he says Russia wants to see who is conducting the investigation.
Q: Do you want a meeting between Theresa May and President Putin?
Yakovenko says Russia wants to see the evidence.
Yakovenko says Russia has never produced novichok. It has come from other countries, he says.
As for the stories about the nerve agent being put on the handle of the car etc, he says this is not official information. This is just what has been leaked to papers.
He says Russia wants serious information from the British.
He says he is surprised that cooperation is not happening. It reminds him of the Alexander Litvinenko case, he says. He says, 10 years on, all the paper relating to that case are still classified.
Yakovenko is about to take questions. But, before he does, he apologises to a female reporter. A Daily Mail journalist wrote something “disgusting” about her dress after the last press conference, he says.
That is probably a reference to this paragraph from this Quentin Letts sketch.
Mr Yakovenko, who has polluted the Court of St James for seven years, took questions. First journalist selected, surprise surprise, was a blonde in scorching red dress, red shoes (kitten heels) and traffic-light red lipstick.
Roger Moore’s eyebrows would have done a few press-ups at the sight of her. She announced she was from some Russian TV station and claimed she had once been personally insulted by Boris Johnson. Knowing our Boris, love, you got off lightly. The ambassador, himself not quite so glamorous, seemed familiar with this broad.
Yakovenko says Russia requested consular access to the Skripals soon after the attack.
Yakovenko says Russia told the UK government very soon after the Salisbury attack that it was not involved. He has a note of his statement to the UK government that he is happy to release, he says.
But he says the UK government continues to say that Russia did not respond to its questions.
Yakovenko is now talking about Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary.
He quotes this tweet from Johnson yesterday.
1) Porton Down identified nerve agent as military grade Novichok; 2) Russia has investigated delivering nerve agents,likely for assassination,& as part of this programme has produced and stockpiled small quantities of Novichoks; 3) Russia has motive for targeting Sergei Skripal.
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) April 4, 2018
Yakovenko says the word “likely” is telling.
I like the word ‘likely’. It’s clever. But what I want to say is, first of all, it’s not true. That statement is not supported by any evidence.
What Johnson says about Russia having the nerve agent is not true, he says.
And he says Johnson was also wrong when he said Russia had a motive for targeting Sergei Skripal.
Updated
Russian ambassador @Amb_Yakovenko setting out Moscow’s actions at the @OPCW and calls for transparency about the investigation’s findings. pic.twitter.com/5ArTo87n1d
— David Hughes (@DavidHughesPA) April 5, 2018
Yakovenko says the results of a Twitter poll conducted by the Russian embassy suggest a majority of the British public back Russia on this.
Russian ambassador now citing a twitter poll which claims 68% of British public is on its side. I wonder who in Britain follows Russian embassy on Twitter though? (Answer: probably Russian ex pats)
— Paul Brand (@PaulBrandITV) April 5, 2018
Russian ambassador's press conference
The Russian ambassador to the UK, Alexander Yakovenko, is giving his press conference now.
He starts by talking about yesterday’s meeting of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
Russia proposed a draft decision for that meeting, he says.
He quotes from the proposal. The draft decision would have required member states to share information with each other in good faith, he says.
It called on Russia and the UK to conduct a joint investigation of the Salisbury attack, including giving investigators full access to the victims, the place where the attack took place and the substance discovered.
And it asked the head of the OPCW to conduct an investigation, he says.
He says the whole world should have access to the findings of the investigation.
But some countries were not happy with this proposal, he says. So there was a vote.
He says 15 countries voted against the decision.
So basically they voted against transparency, they voted against access to full and fair information.
He says the countries that voted against were Nato and EU countries.
- Russian ambassador says countries that voted against Russia at OPCW were voting against transparency.
But he says African, Latin American and Asian countries did not support the 15 countries voting against Russia.
That means the international community as a whole does not support the American/Nato position, he says.
He says the Russian motion did not pass.
He says the results of the OPCW will be presented to Britain in about a week.
It will then be up to Britain to decide whether to share that information. He urges Britain to “be transparent, to be honest” and to release it.
- Russian ambassador urges Britain to publish conclusions of OPCW investigation into Salisbury attack.
UPDATE: This is from my colleague Patrick Wintour.
Russian ambassador urges UK to share full results of OPCW inquiry into Skripal poisoning after it is completed, probably next week. Previously Russia has said it will not accept results of OPCW inquiry unless Russia involved in inquiry.
— Patrick Wintour (@patrickwintour) April 5, 2018
Updated
Here is my colleague Shaun Walker, a former Guardian Moscow correspondent, on the interview that Viktoria Skripal, Sergei’s niece, has been giving to Russian media.
The latest crazy twist in this story, by @Andrew__Roth: Yulia Skripal allegedly tells cousin she's fine and her dad is also on the mend. https://t.co/v5GrjRE2R3
— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) April 5, 2018
One Q: Why, given in the audio she sounds surprised to receive the call from Yulia, was she recording it?
The cousin having her calls recorded, passing them to Russian state tv, and singing like a canary to all Russian media about bringing Yulia home etc is pretty fishy. But if that's a real recording, it gets pretty "interesting" for British authorities from here...
— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) April 5, 2018
And this is from my colleague Luke Harding, another former Guardian Moscow correspondent.
Yulia #Skripal says 'everyone is getting better', according to relative. Kremlin's next step: to make Yulia return to #Russia. And, in due course, to get her to discredit UK account of nerve agent attack https://t.co/BsrqznOQ58
— Luke Harding (@lukeharding1968) April 5, 2018
Alexander Yakovenko, the Russian ambassador to the UK, is holding a press briefing. It is about to start, ITV’s Paul Brand reports.
Russian Ambassador about to address the UK media. Serenading the cameras from his balcony. pic.twitter.com/AoQzH5EunX
— Paul Brand (@PaulBrandITV) April 5, 2018
A relative of the poisoned former double agent Sergei Skripal has said she has spoken by phone with his daughter, Yulia, her first contact with the outside world since falling into a coma after the 4 March nerve agent attack, my colleague Andrew Roth reports from Moscow.
David Miliband calls for referendum on final Brexit deal
David Miliband, the former Labour foreign secretary who now leads the International Rescue Committee aid organisation in the US, has written an article for the New Statesman calling for a referendum on the final Brexit deal. Here’s an excerpt.
The Conservative and Labour leaderships united in an appalling act of short-sightedness to trigger the two year article 50 process in March 2017, way before either had worked out the basics of what Brexit should mean. Now they are uniting to say that it is too late to think again. That isn’t good enough. It leaves parliament to speak up for the foundations of our security and our place in the world – to warn about the dangers ahead and to give people the chance to have a final vote on the final deal. John Major’s proposal for a free vote would aid this process. But the end game in order to avert the damage of Brexit is going to need to be in the hands of the people.
In 2016, the foreign policy environment was benign enough to defy David Cameron’s attempts to bring it into the referendum debate. His argument about the position of Britain in the global balance of power after Brexit was mocked as a prediction of World War 3.
Today it is no longer possible to be so sanguine. The values of liberal democracy are in retreat. The threats to peace around the world are more acute than ever. Britain’s role as a stabilising power in the global system has rarely been more needed. This is no time to give the forces of revanchism a free hit.
The article will no doubt fuel speculation that he is interested in some sort of return to UK politics to head a new centrist party. The Times’ columnist Rachel Sylvester turbocharged with theory with an article (paywall) on Tuesday claiming that such a party would “quickly gain traction”.
Imagine if David Miliband announced that he was returning to Britain to set up a new party. It would be socially and economically liberal, internationalist and domestically reforming, including of capitalism. Opposing Brexit would be part of its agenda, but not its whole identity. The movement would quickly gain traction. The Lib Dems would almost certainly fold into it. Sir Nick Clegg says “I’m a Lib Dem but it’s not the be all and end all”, and I am told that Sir Vince feels the same. “It’s the values not the vehicle that matter,” says one Lib Dem strategist ...
“David is still attracted to Britain,” says one friend. “He feels frustrated that the Labour Party is as lamentably led as it is and frustrated that he is in America. It’s possible he could come back.” Although he has always insisted that Labour is his tribe and he would never leave it, the truth is that it has abandoned him. His mother survived the Holocaust; how can he any longer align himself with a party that turns a blind eye to its deniers?
But others are not convinced. This is from the Economist political editor Adrian Wooldridge. He is commenting on a link to a CapX column by Alex Massie saying: “To put it kindly any question in which one of the few possible answers is, er, David Miliband is not a question that is going to be answered in the affirmative.”
Spot on: the David Miliband nonsense is a reminder of how little fresh thinking there has been in the centre since the referendum. Instead of new thought, the centre has offered us something uniquely pointless, complacency in defeat, https://t.co/rvNk11FoMl via @CapX
— adrian wooldridge (@adwooldridge) April 5, 2018
The Russian embassy in London continues to troll the UK.
Media: Bad news - murder rate has risen in London. Good news - Moscow is now safer than London. pic.twitter.com/nknd35aNA6
— Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) April 5, 2018
(Although probably not if you are an opponent or critic of Vladimir Putin ....)
One of the first acts of Labour’s new general secretary, Jennie Formby, has been to tell two senior outgoing members of party staff that they should not serve out their notice, but should leave immediately. John Stolliday, Labour’s longstanding director of governance and legal, and Dan Simpson, PLP secretary, have both been sent on gardening leave.
The formal deadline for nominations for May’s local elections is this Friday, and some senior party insiders fear the loss of Stolliday’s expertise in particular in a key week could lead to errors. “You’re going to see messy situations”, said one.
But another Labour source insisted the pair had departed by consent, and all the proper processes had been followed.
The pair were among those who resigned from top jobs in the Labour hierarchy after Formby, whose candidacy was strongly backed by Jeremy Corbyn’s office, was confirmed in the job last month.
According to a story by Sam Coates and Catherine Philp in the Times (paywall), “security services believe that they have pinpointed the location of the covert Russian laboratory that manufactured the weapons-grade nerve agent used in Salisbury.” The Times says:
Ministers and security officials were able to identify the source using scientific analysis and intelligence in the days after the attempted murder of Sergei and Yulia Skripal a month ago, according to security sources.
Britain knew about the existence of the facility where the novichok poison was made before the attack on March 4, it is understood. A Whitehall source added: “We knew pretty much by the time of the first Cobra [the emergency co-ordination briefing that took place the same week] that it was overwhelmingly likely to come from Russia.”
Labour accuses Ben Wallace of 'playing party politics with country's security'
The Labour party has criticised Ben Wallace, the security minister, for apparently implying that Jeremy Corbyn could not be trusted with sensitive intelligence. (See 10.09am.) A spokesman said:
This is completely irresponsible and another attempt by the Tories to deflect criticism from Boris Johnson’s blatant attempt to mislead the public. The foreign secretary has still failed to account for himself and still has serious questions to answer. Ben Wallace should be acting in the national interest, not playing party politics with the country’s security.
Wallace was certainly casting doubt on Corbyn’s credibility on security. (I’ve asked the Tories for evidence to back up Wallace’s claim that Corbyn voted to abolish the intelligence services, but they have not got back to me yet. I’m fairly sure such evidence does not exist.)
But Wallace was not explicitly saying that that was the reason why Corbyn had not been shown the full Salisbury intelligence. Prime ministers never share all their intelligence in cases like this with the opposition. The most sensitive material does not even get shared with all the cabinet ...
Greens urge voters to end 'one party state councils' in local elections
At the launch of the Green party local election campaign this morning, the party will urge voters to end the “one party state” operating in some local authority areas. Jonathan Bartley, the co-leader, will appeal to voters to choose a Green to stand up for their community instead of adding “one more Labour or Tory to already complacent councils”. He will say:
The Green party wants to see a Green on every council to build a better Britain from the bottom up. Across the country councils have forgotten the people they are meant to serve. One party state councils are riding roughshod over the wishes of their communities.
In these local elections people have the choice to add one more Labour or Tory councillor to already complacent councils - or choose a Green who can change everything.
The Greens are standing a record number of candidates on May 3, contesting 2,200 seats.
Security minister defends government's decision not to share all Salisbury intelligence with Corbyn
Ben Wallace, the security minister, was on the Today programme earlier talking about the Salisbury nerve agent attack and Russia. Here are the main points he made.
- Wallace defended the government’s decision not to share all its intelligence about the Salisbury attack with Jeremy Corbyn. He said Corbyn had had a briefing on the attack on privy council terms (a level of confidentiality only available to privy counsellors). That meant Corbyn knew more than the average MP, Wallace said.
[Corbyn] would have already seen more that the average backbench MP because he had a privy council briefing.
Wallace said he was not involved in organising that briefing and he did not know exactly what Corbyn had been told. But he said that he did not think Corbyn knew as much as he personally knew in his capacity as security minister. That was proper, he said, because it is the government that has to take decisions. And lives could be put at risk if intelligence got leaked, he said.
The circle of who gets to see very sensitive information is very small because if you leak it or it gets out, people’s lives are put at risk.
- Wallace claimed that Corbyn used to be in favour of abolishing the intelligence services.
And we shouldn’t forget, Jeremy Corbyn has made his position very clear on people like the intelligence services. He voted to abolish them about 20 odd years ago.
Wallace may have got this wrong. It has been reported that Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, signed a Commons early day motion in 1989 saying MI5 should be abolished. But Corbyn did not seem to have signed it, and EDMs never get put to a vote anyway. Or Wallace may have been thinking of the story about John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, backing a document ahead of the 2015 election saying MI5 should be abolished. McDonnell was photographed holding up the document approvingly, although he said that he had never signed it and did not agree with that particular proposal. I’ve asked Labour for a comment, but they have not got back to me yet.
- Wallace said the government was not planning to publish more of the intelligence that led it to conclude Russia was responsible for the attack. He said:
We don’t want a repeat of what’s happened in the past, where we get into a Dutch auction: we give you a little bit more, and people ask for more and more ...
The danger is that, the thirst [for evidence], ‘produce more, produce more, produce more’, we do so and we get to a stage where we put at risk Britain’s capabilities with intelligence.
- He rejected claims that there were parallels between this case and the controversy about Iraq supposedly having weapons of mass destruction (WMD). There was “no missing nerve agent that no-one can find”, he said. There was “no doubt that we have found nerve agent”, he said. (Last month, soon after the Salisbury attack, Jeremy Corbyn’s spokesman raised the Iraq/WMD case in a briefing as evidence of why claims from the intelligence services about what happened to Sergei Skripal and his daughter should be treated with some caution, but since then Labour seems to have dropped this argument and in his more recent statements Corbyn has not cast doubt on the reliability of the intelligence in this case.)
- Wallace said Russia’s guilt in this case was “beyond reasonable doubt”. He explained.
That nerve agent has been identified to being manufactured we believe in Russia and we believe that the nerve agent, the novichok type of nerve agent, is only capable of being produced by a nation state, and then we add that to intelligence we hold, we add that to some of the police investigation that’s going on right now, and we can say that roads lead to Russia, that we are beyond reasonable doubt of the view that the Russian state is behind this.
This is the second major Radio 4 interview Wallace has given within 24 hours. He was on the World at One yesterday too. The Telegraph’s Alan Cochrane is reassured.
Seems like Ben Wallace is running the country. On Today every morning. But prob Just as well as he appears to know what he’s doing. And why should Corbyn be told anything on security matters?
— Alan Cochrane (@Alan_Cochrane) April 5, 2018
Updated
The AFP news agency has filed more about what Sergei Lavrov said in his speech this morning about the Salisbury nerve agent attack. Here is the AFP report.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said London cannot ignore Moscow’s “legitimate questions” over the poisoning of an ex-spy, as he called for a “substantial and responsible” probe into the case.
“It will not be possible to ignore the legitimate questions we are asking,” he said hours before a meeting of the UN security council, which is due to discuss the spiralling diplomatic crisis between Russia and the West.
Moscow is insisting on a “substantial and responsible investigation” in accordance with the chemical weapons convention, Lavrov added.
London has said it is highly likely that Russia is to blame for the poisoning of former double agent Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the English city of Salisbury on March 4.
Moscow has angrily denied any involvement.
The row has resulted in a massive wave of diplomatic expulsions by Britain and its allies and then by Russia in a tit-for-tat move.
Russia called a meeting of the global chemical watchdog on Wednesday over the Salisbury incident, but failed in its bid to join the probe by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
Moscow then requested a UN security council meeting on Thursday at 1900 GMT in New York.
Britain is carrying out its own probe, with independent technical assistance from OPCW experts.
Lavrov said Russian President Vladimir Putin had stressed the country was ready for “joint work” and was calling for the situation to be examined in a “fair way, with the presentation of evidence”.
Lavrov reiterated that Russia views Britain’s refusal to allow it access to the investigation as “a mockery of international law, diplomatic etiquette and elementary decency”.
He said that the Skripal case was “a pretext, either made up or staged, for the groundless expulsions of diplomats”, suggesting Russia is claiming the poisoning did not happen in the way it has been reported by London.
Moscow wanted to “establish the truth”, Lavrov said.
He linked the poisoning to other allegations against Russia - from meddling in the US elections to chemical weapons attacks by the Syrian regime it supports militarily - complaining that Moscow faces “baseless accusations.”
Russia dismisses UK claim that it was to blame for Salisbury attack as 'fairy tale'
Today the Salisbury nerve agent attack will be debated at the United Nations security council. Russia has requested a discussion and, in his overnight story, my colleague Patrick Wintour says:
An emboldened Russia will on Thursday attempt to discredit Britain’s international reputation at the UN after a series of blunders by Boris Johnson and the Foreign Office led to accusations that the UK had overstated its case that Russia was responsible for the nerve agent attack on the former spy Sergei Skripal.
Here is Patrick’s story in full.
In what was probably a foretaste of what will be said by Russia in New York, Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, this morning described claims that Russia was to blame for the attack as a “fairy tale”. He was speaking at the Moscow conference on international security and he said:
It is unacceptable to continue with acts like the Salisbury case, putting forward unsubstantiated allegations instead of having a proper investigation. It is only in [Lewis] Caroll’s book that the Queen demands first the accused be sentenced, and then the jury will make their verdict. But Lewis Caroll wrote a humorous book, in the format of a fairy tale. Yesterday’s events showed us that adult people do not believe in fairy tales, and we call upon our colleagues to decide on the basis of a fair investigation. We are fully prepared for that kind of effort.
Lavrov also said the poisoning of Sergei Skripal was “staged” to justify the expulsion of Russian diplomats from many countries “whose arms were twisted.”
Lavrov was speaking in Russian, but the video feed included a English translation. slightly rough and ready translation. I’ve tidied up the language slightly just to make it more proper. But you can watch his speech in full here.
Sadly, the security council debate will not take place until the afternoon New York time, evening UK time, and so it will be too late for me.
Otherwise, parliament is still in recess and it is still quite quiet at Westminster.
As usual, I will be covering breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web. I will post a summary at the end of the day.
You can read all today’s Guardian politics stories here.
Here is the Politico Europe round-up of this morning’s political news. And here is the PoliticsHome list of today’ top 10 must reads.
If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
I try to monitor the comments BTL but normally I find it impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer direct questions, although sometimes I miss them or don’t have time.
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